and say that, first of all, I’m not ridiculously confident in any singular player coming up big but if I am most confident in Bol Kong. I still think Kong needs to get a bit for confidence instilled in him from the staff to let him know that he can create his own shot on offense. We’ve heard all along that he is an outstanding scorer that can do things all over the court. We saw this earlier in the year and up until about the Oklahoma game when he was sensational but it has dropped off a bit recently. Kong has the ability to create match up issues on offense and his defense has really progressed since the start of the year.

Manny and Kelly aren’t far behind but I still think Kong has the offensive explosiveness to be big down the stretch.

I’ve been defending him all season long from the likes of guys like Mike in Sequim. After watching Kentucky v. South Carolina I am even more convinced that Meech’s intensity and on ball defensive pressure can propell us further than a sweet sixteen. I am not convinced if we saw the likes of a Devin Downey, without Meech in his grill all game long we could be victorious. And I am 100% certain without Meech hounding John Wall all game we could even be in the same league as Kentucky! Meech brings so many intangibles to the floor that don’t show up on the stat line! Matt, Steven, Grant, are all nice ball players, but are limited when it comes to on ball defense! Meech is the best we’ve seen in this category ever at GU! I am confident that baring foul trouble we can now defend great point guards. All of our previous point guards that I can remember except for Matt Santangelo were a liability on the defensive end against the elite point guards! Meech will come along on the offensive end, Mark Few and Co. will develop that! He has a nice rotation and a soft shot, just no confidence right now. His mistakes are common mistakes from young point guards. I even saw Super Fresh John Wall make 2 crucial turnovers down the stretch that cost KU the game last night. I don’t want to go back to the program that is sweet sixteen bound every year. To go beyond that like our 99 team you have to be extremely good on the defensive side of the ball. And defensive pressure starts with guards and Meech is our man!

I agree that Bol, Manny, and KO have a lot of potential, and I think they will develop into great players, but will probably need the offseason to really get better. This year though, I think for our team to succeed in March, we need Sacre to step up again. He has the moves and the touch, I think he’s just lost some confidence. If he can work on finding the open man when he gets doubled instead of turning it over and get back to being more aggressive on both ends, then the rest will take care of itself. I am fine if he is only getting 8 pts per game if he’s also getting 8-10 rebounds per game. He just needs to boost his aggressiveness up (and of course work on FT’s along with the rest of the team).

On a side note, I definitely prefer this year’s team over last year’s. Despite the defensive slump we’ve been in the last few games, this team has shown the ability to play outstanding defense, and that makes for much better basketball.

We need a consistent post threat in order to effectively utilize our other weapons and spot shooters like Bol Kong. Against Michigan St. the guy looked like a monster and bled confidence. He has the strength and athleticism to be a real threat against defenses, and an indispensable tool within our offense. If we can get half of that effectiveness back, I’ll be happy and I see a sweet-16 in our future.

Off the bench, I’d like to see Bol be a step-up player. I already see Manny as an effective scoring and rebounding threat, and I don’t think Few is looking for more than he is already getting from him. However, if Bol is able to really gain some confidence in his game and expand his effect to within the arc, he will be a very dynamic threat that will cause innumerable match-up problems.

What more do you need? Offensively we are fine we just need some better defense and the Sweet 16 is a lock. Best offensive team we have ever had, if you scrap ’06 because it was one guy…

But Sacre needs to come out of conference play looking more like the start of the season. What happened to his confidence and scoring ability? Must be a confidence issue, or he misunderstood when the coaches told him that E is the guy.